I logged on this morning and bought my second stock for the portfolio. Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is a military shipbuilder and the leading supplier of the United States military. I got in today at $249.00 and purchased 3 shares for a total of $747.00. I still have $8,579.88 of cash left in my 10K Portfolio.
Why HII?
From a broad perspective, I often like to have an impetus behind an investment. You need to be able to tell a story and then focus in on the minutia. Looking at the Trump administration, I don’t think it is a stretch to say he favors a growing military budget. This set me on a quest to look at all the public military contractors. One thing I noticed is that they are almost all great companies. It is no wonder the US military spending is so large and growing. From there I determined HII was my favorite and have been following it ever since.
Huntigton Ingalls is a classic high moat company. They are the leading supplier of the US Navy, supplying over 70% of all ships. They are the only company capable of building and refueling nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and one of only two that can build a nuclear powered submarine. They were spun off from Northrop Grumman in 2011. Spin offs are often a good candidate for research, as they are not always properly valued. Seven years later, HII continues to gain market share and grow their earnings.
HII generates ample free cash flow each and every year. You might start to sense a theme, I prefer companies with lots of leftover cash ever year. This gives a company flexibility, they aren’t constrained to any one strategy. Should they see a good acquisition opportunity then great, otherwise they can pay out dividends or buy back shares of the company. The board recently increased the buyback allowance from 1.2 billion to 2.2 billion. If my math suits me correctly 2.2 billion is just over 20% of the entire company. They won’t buy it all back overnight, but the share count should fall dramatically over time.
While 2017 wasn’t quite a banner year, they more than made up for it in the first half of 2018. Due to lower taxes, a reduced share count and higher sales and margins earnings increased YoY from 3.21 to 5.40. That’s an increase of 68% in a single calendar year. While we can’t expect such growth going forward, that would be impossible. The company will continue to perform with precision.
Conclusion
Huntington Ingalls is a simple but extremely well run company. They will never be the fastest growing company, but they are almost guaranteed to grow at a decent clip over time. They have a growing backlog that will keep them busy for years to come. As of the end of 2017 their backlog stood at $21.4 billion. The company will continue to buy back shares and grow their earnings. They are trading at a reasonable multiple and over the course of 5-10 years the company will be considerably larger.
The GARP Investor 